Pandora's Box
by whatyousee
Summary: Just a short one shot. Jake's thoughts as he sits in his cell in Hell's Gate after Home Tree is destroyed. 800 words.


Jake sat, staring at hands that felt too small; too fragile. The strange sensation of being only half. Half of what he was, half human, half dreaming. It was a feeling he'd become all too accustomed to throughout the past years of his life. But he'd had freedom, a taste of what his life was meant to be, what he was meant to be. Now the harshness and detriment of his world, this version of himself, was a bitter pill he just couldn't swallow.

In the real world, he was strong and agile, a fierce warrior; the man he'd been born to be. In this dream, this nightmare, he was a shadow growing thinner with each passing day. On a planet he'd grown up hearing about, but never figured he'd ever go to. _It's all backwards now, like out there is the real world and in here is just a dream _He didn't know what he was anymore, who he was, looking at hands that felt alien and yet this is what he'd been born with. No. The Na'vi people believed that every man was born twice ; these were no longer his hands. They were a skin to be shed, a former self he no longer recognized. Omaticaya. That was what he now was, one of the People.

For the first time since he'd lain, broken and bleeding on the ground, he felt he had a place. A purpose. He'd been given a path of his own, and a second chance to take it. The Na'vi people had given him a new life, a chance to belong in a new world and even someone to guide him down his path. He'd been sent to them so that he could learn their ways, in his mind he was doing it to save them, to try. But he'd come to terms with the fact there would be no way to bargain, there was nothing the Sky People had that the Na'vi wanted.

It was supposed to be a mission, just following orders, but she'd captured him. Taught him about the forests and the skies, shown him value in what he'd never thought important before. The world he came from was barren, dying and wasted. Now they were attempting to do the same thing here, and he was expected to sit back and let it all happen.

Jake scrubbed frail hands over his head, feeling the close cut stubble along his scalp and his eyes closed. He could see her, in his mind's eye she was always right there and even in this dream he could feel the bond they'd created. It was stronger than emotion, nothing was so simple on this planet; nothing was only on the surface. This was molecular, electricity firing through his synapses at top speed. It was for life, just like she had said.

_What are you doing Jake? _He had fallen too hard, too fast. It had been her wild heart, fierce loyalty to her people and the love and respect for her world that had caught him up so entirely. It was strange to him, and he hadn't seen anything like it himself ... the men he'd known his whole life did what they did for the money. Not because of the cause. She had a passion that matched his own and a will just as strong. Wild.

He was at a fork, two different paths in two very different directions. He had no place here, in this dream, he'd betrayed his own race; turned his back on them without entirely realizing it until he'd been thrown back into his frail body and looked up into his superior's face. "You crossed the line." And then it was lights out. Waking up in this cell, defeat weighing on every inch of his body, he knew for sure. He was outcast by the Na'vi, betrayer of his own kind. He was in the place the eye does not see.

Quiet blue-grey eyes opened, peering out behind the spaces between his fingers at the cold floor and he knew which road to take. Even as the others stood, Trudy coming to their rescue, he remained silent in his thoughts. The Na'vi had given him everything and more, new life and breath and Jake knew deep in his heart that he would use every ounce of this gift to return the favour. He wheeled out of their captive cell as fast as he could, new purpose pulsing through his veins with the few friends that remained flanking him as they moved; he knew it was time to return to the real world.

One life ends, another begins.


End file.
